Nintendo Mini Classics are a series of small LCD games licensed by Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

. Most games in the series are reissues of Game & Watch

Game & Watch

is a line of handheld electronic games produced by Nintendo from to . Created by game designer Gunpei Yokoi, each Game & Watch features a single game to be played on an LCD screen in addition to a clock and an alarm ....

 titles, but the series does include titles that were not from the original Game & Watch line. All of the Mini Classics titles are still officially licensed by Nintendo.

Design

Each Mini Classics unit is designed to look like a small Game Boy

Game Boy

The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

. Units typically have all the buttons of a Game Boy, with A, B, Start, and Select buttons, a keychain attached to the top left hand corner, and a stand on the back. Some games, however, do not have a stand, especially Dual-screen releases such as Oil Panic and Donkey Kong.
Mini Classics are sold in an assortment of colors, varying from game to game. (Mario's Cement Factory, for example, is blue and Donkey Kong junior is gold.)
Similar to the Game and Watch, the Nintendo Mini Classics units have alarm clock features. Some games, like Oil Panic, have two displays.

Batteries

The unit is powered by two AG13/Button Cell/LR44 batteries, which are packaged with the Nintendo Mini Classic. The Mini Classics version of Super Mario Bros. reportedly drains batteries fairly quickly.

Game & Watch reissues

• Parachute
• Octopus
• Fire
• Snoopy Tennis
• Oil Panic (Dual Screen) (Europe exclusive)
• Donkey Kong (Dual-Screen)
• Donkey Kong Jr.
• Mario's Cement Factory
• Super Mario Bros
• Zelda Game & Watch
  LCD games from The Legend of Zelda series
  LCD games are electronic games played on an LCD screen. Since the release of the Zelda Game & Watch game in August 1989, several LCD games based upon the theme of The Legend of Zelda have been licensed by Nintendo to be released for both Japanese and foreign markets...
  
   (Dual-Screen) (1998)

Original Titles

• Carrera (a racing game branded by the slot car
  Slot car
  A slot car is a powered miniature auto or other vehicle that is guided by a groove or slot in the track on which it runs. A pin or blade extends from the bottom of the car into the slot...
  
   manufactuer Carrera
  Carrera (slot car brand)
  Carrera is a slot car brand introduced in the early 1960s by Josef Neuhierl GmbH & Co. KG based in the Franconian town of Fürth, Germany. The name Carrera was inspired by the Porsche Carrera models which took their name from the Carrera Panamericana road race.Carrera dominated the German markets in...
  
  )
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Europe exclusive)
• Poker (Europe exclusive)
• Smurfs (Europe exclusive)
• Soccer
• Spider-Man
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (Single Screen) (Europe exclusive)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (Dual-Screen) (Europe exclusive)
• Star Trek: TOS Beam me up! (Europe exclusive)
• Sudoku (Europe exclusive)
• Tetris (Europe Exclusive) (Licensed by Nintendo)
• UEFA Euro 2008 (Europe exclusive)
• Yu-Gi-Oh!
  Yu-Gi-Oh!
  is a Japanese manga created by Kazuki Takahashi. It has produced a franchise that includes multiple anime shows, a trading card game and numerous video games...
  
  

Different Colors

Some of the Mini Classics models, particularly the often-reissued Mario and Donkey Kong titles, have undergone several different color changes since the original 1998 releases. A couple of titles have also been given new color-tinted LCD displays since then.

Donkey Kong Jr.

• Toymax: Dark Green Case (1998)
• MGA: Yellow-Green Case (2000) (later reissued with color LCD circa 2005)
• It's Outrageous: Yellow Case with Color LCD (2007)

Mario's Cement Factory

• Toymax: Yellow Case (1999)
• MGA: Grey Case (2000)
• Take 2: Transparent Yellow Case (2002)
• It's Outrageous: Dark Blue Case (2007)

Super Mario Bros.

• Toymax: White Case (1998)
• MGA: Blue Case (2000)
• It's Outrageous: Green Case with Color LCD (2007)

The Smurfs

• Take 2: Transparent Blue-Green Case (2001)
• Take 2 (?): Yellow Case (2006)

Distributors

• Zappies Ltd, exclusive distributor in the UK.
• Stadlbauer, maker of the Nintendo Mini Classics, and principal distributor of the titles in Europe.
• Take 2 Interactive, current distributor of the Mini Classics in parts of Europe. The only known distributor of Oil Panic and the games based on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• Toymax, first American distributor of the Mini Classics. The first wave released in 1998 consisted of Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Fire, and Parachute. Octopus and Mario's Cement Factory were issued shortly thereafter in 1999. The packaging and an insert included for the last two games indicate that Snoopy Tennis apparently was also released in that time, but a Toymax-branded version of the game has yet to be discovered.
• MGA Entertainment
  MGA Entertainment
  MGA Entertainment is a manufacturer of children's toys and entertainment products founded in 1979. Its products include the Bratz fashion doll line, Lalaloopsy, Kachooz!, Moxie Girlz, Moxie Teenz, Hugwallas, BFC, Ink. and Rescue Pets. MGAE also owns The Little Tikes Company...
  
  , after the Toymax releases, MGA reissued Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario's Cement Factory in the USA beginning in 2000.
• It's Outrageous, current distributor of the Mini Classics in the United States. The company re-reissued Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario's Cement Factory, and introduced several of the newer Mini Classics to America, including Donkey Kong, Zelda, Soccer, Spiderman, and Carrea.
• Playtronic, former distributor of Mini Classics in Brazil.
• Candide, current distributor of the Mini Classics in Brazil. 5 titles were released, all of them are the It's Outrageous versions. The games are Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Jr., Soccer, SMB Cement Factory, and Carrera.

External links

• Stadlbauer EN, English-translated site for the original distributor
• Stadlbauer DE, original Austrian website for Stadlbauer
• It's Outrageous, official website of the current USA distributor
• Game & Watch, fan site for Game & Watch collectors